The Wars Through Which We Are Forged
by WolfenReaper
Summary: Time continues. The Reapers were destroyed and the humans have a large Colony on a new planet named Sera. Follow Shiro Shepard and his squad as they forge a path forward in a war that is rigged from the start. Let's break out the only guy who can save us but has an insane lack of motivation. Maybe Chiyoko Vakarian, Zaari Reeger and Prius Victus can solve that problem! All OC
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer**

 **I do not own any rights to Mass Effect or Gears so...yeah...fan purposes only.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

When the Reapers hit Earth they decimated the Alliance. Human numbers dwindled greatly and many couldn't stay on Earth due to the constant reminder of the sentient race that had tried to reduce them to ashes, they moved on from planet to planet until one was found that could be colonized into a new world for the Humans. They named the planet Sera. Some of the other races (Quarians, Asari, Salarians, Turians, even Krogans) helped the Humans to build a new life on Sera and when they found Emulsion (a type of miracle fuel) it made living there seem like a great idea. Peace lasted for seventeen years. On the seventeenth year a species that could not be recognised rose out of the ground and launched an attack on all who lived on the surface, they are the Locusts. They were destroying everything, the habitants realised that the Alliance wouldn't be able to get them out of the trouble they were in and created a new army. Those who took up arms were recognised as Gears, the soldiers of the COG (Coalition of Ordered Governments)

Our story begins two years and 6 months after E-Day (emergence day)

Chapter 1 Breakout

The wretches never seemed to stop moving through the vents and hallways of the dilapidated cryogenic prison that held only one living convict, the only time they did stop was when they began to drool into the cryo chamber that held said person, the moment they were noticed by the out of date security system they were hit with an electric pulse which caused them to back into a ventilation fan that chopped them up into bite size pieces

'So annoying'

All went silent for a few more minutes until a loud scratching noise was heard at the large biotic-proof titanium door that had, for two years, blocked any possible escape route if the prisoner was ever accidentally awoken from the ice cold slumber.

'Breaking…?'

"Jack, rip that door and then cloak a few meters away." A naïve sounding female voice came from behind the cell door issuing the order to the small COG robot accompanying her.

'That voice is…familiar.'

"Cryo blast followed by Incineration should do the trick." She said to herself as she thought out loud.

'I recognise the unique harmonics underlying in the tone. Chi?'

The door suddenly exploded into tiny shards of ice spreading out across the floor of the cell, all of which fell short of the cryogenic capsule which was held in place by many connected pipes and a metal support structure. Chiyoko Vakarian stood behind the controlled explosion, although she looked mostly human her head spikes, reflective skin, more prominent hips and bowed legs gave away the fact that she was actually a Turian/Human hybrid.

Chiyoko stepped into the cell through the now inexistent door, with a grin on her face that showed just how satisfied she was of her destructive results, the pride that was hidden within her pale blue eyes began to show as she called to the now invisible robot floating just outside.

"As much confidence as I have in my technical abilities I think you should handle this one Jack. I don't want to accidentally kill my own cousin." She whispered the last part as she stepped aside just enough to let 'Jack' through.

Jack began to carefully yet surely unplug each of the outer tubes which continuously pumped liquid nitrogen into the outer layer of the capsule, after which he began to hack into the main control system and shut down the unneeded operations, thus leading to the opening of the capsule itself.

The capsule began to open sideways as an icy mist was purged from within, causing Chiyoko to shiver as the room dropped significantly in temperature.

She peered at the slim figure of her cryogenically frozen cousin Shiro Shepard and the metal restraints around his neck, wrists and ankles that strapped him firmly to the inside of the capsule. His body slowly began to regain its warmth as the blood flowed more freely than before with nothing slowing it down. His eyelids twitched followed by him slowly opening his glowing lime green eyes, he showed no expression and looked lifeless and dazed, his consciousness had not yet returned completely to his body which had been unmoving for the past two years.

The first thing Shiro saw, when his eyes focused and he became aware of his surroundings, was Chiyoko's nostalgic face peering back at him.

"Seriously? Cryo Shiro? You know us Turians hate the cold." She said as she rolled her eyes at him while grinning.

"Uhhhh…" He tried to speak but his mind and body were not yet in sync with each other and only a moan came as a reply.

It took a while for his eyes to adjust to the dimly lit cell but once they had his sight amplified tenfold. He began to clear his throat and coughed slightly before he tried to speak again this time the words came out but only as a whisper,

"Nobody asked you to break me out,'' Jack began to cut through the metal restraints with his built in laser.

As soon as Jack had finished cutting through the last restraint Shiro immediately collapsed under the weight of his own body, the small, floating Jack struggled to hold him up under the chest and sit him up next to the capsule to wait until he had his motor functions back.

"Thanks…um…Jack." Shiro struggled to get his words out the way he wanted and at the same time couldn't understand why this robot was named Jack in the first place. Shiro had always been slim and agile just like his father Thane Krios a drell assassin. His Drell traits were mostly hidden, but his skin reflected slightly green when the light hit it and he had deep green scales that had grown down his spine and across where his ribs would be like an outer skeleton. His white hair was a genetic trait called albino which his human mother Tsubasa Shepard had passed down to him and his illuminous green eyes paired together with the fact that his sclera are black like a drells caused many to be wary of him because of his slightly demonic appearance.

"Your hair got long." Shiro stated as he looked at Chiyoko's auburn hair that now reached her shoulders, no emotion appeared on his face.

"I need to get you a mirror!" She giggled "Yours is the same length as mine but other than that nothing else has changed, you're still as emotionless as ever. My hair could have been longer but the ends keep getting singed off in the middle of fire fights. It sucks!" Chiyoko complained.

Shiro flexed his muscles one by one and slowly reached for the side of the capsule, it took him a while but he managed to pull himself onto his feet, long enough for his legs to give way as he ended up back on the floor again.

Chiyoko slightly grinned as Shiro tripped up again "I hate to rush you…"

Shiro looked at her as he dragged himself up again this time managing to retain his balance "I was technically a vegetable for two years… You are not rushing me."

Chiyoko placed some black combat trousers, a black and blue tinted, metal plated hoodie and a metal mask on top of Jack, along with some knee high combat boots with lightweight metal plating and straps on each one and a pair of fingerless gloves to complete the set.

"I don't think I'll be the one rushing you, but the locust outside the cryo prison might…aha...ha…" She peered at Shiro as he took hold of the armour Jack had taken to him. "It's all there. Every piece you gave to me to hold on to. I thought now was the best time to give them back to you."

Shiro turned his armour over to reveal the COG and N7 symbols on the fabric and with a slight sigh gripped it tighter between his fingers. "I didn't think I'd ever be wearing these again."

He began to slide the trousers over his legs and then pulled the hoodie around his back which sported a long green tinted scar where a few scales were now missing. He pulled the armour over and around his shoulders with a grunt as though his muscles themselves were creaking, the armour melded and interlinked as it reached his chest. Shiro looked at Jack with an awkward expression on his face and waved him over with slight discontent. Jack fluttered closer to Shiro and held fast as Shiro leant against him and began struggling to stay balanced while strapping his boots to his legs with his right hand.

Chiyoko turned to talk to Shiro only to see his composure slowly breaking down, she couldn't stop her laughter from becoming audible as he tried to grip one of the straps only to find his muscles decided otherwise.

As soon as he heard Chiyoko's laughter he looked up and his eyes shot her a glare that could have killed someone in an instant.

"You like watching me suffer, don't you?" He commented while stretching his back out and standing up straight, he was 6ft tall when he managed to gain his balance.

"It is-something I don't get to see very often!" Chiyoko chuckled and then turned to the door upon seeing Shiro's illuminous blue biotics flare up around his shoulders, to her surprise Shiro did naught but brush it off sluggishly as he placed the metal mask against his face as it attached to the inside of his hood.

"That armour of yours is as unique as ever and um…your hair is showing from under your hood." Chiyoko commented as she took hold of a longer strand of his white hair, "Do you want me to cut it?" she asked as she removed her gloves to reveal five sharp talons that grew like nails from her fingers.

Shiro contemplated her suggestion for only a moment before replying "Just be careful not to cut my skin while you're at it." He said as he removed his hood and mask once again.

"Pfft, I'm not that clumsy." She pouted and began to cut away at the longer pieces of his hair, "Y'know, everybody thinks you wear a mask because you have a deformed face or something. I wonder how shocked they'd be if they saw how handsome you actually are?" she giggled gleefully as she thought about it.

"I guess you will never know." Shiro said as he looked at her sideways.

"I've finished, now your hair shouldn't show." Chiyoko stated as she pulled on her glove and watched Shiro put on his mask and replaced his hood. "I might have a career as a hairdresser after this war."

"Let's go." Those were the only words Shiro had time to say before Chiyoko grabbed him around the waist and picked him up over her shoulder with a huff.

"Put… Me… Down." He growled in his low monotone voice, his muscles starting to go limp as his blood slowly rushed to his head.

"It's faster this way, plus both you and your muscles are tired aren't they?" she retorted with a matter of fact tone that showed how much confidence she had in her actions.

"I'm fine, I can…" Chiyoko listened for the rest of what Shiro was going to say but only heard a deep sigh as he lost consciousness.

"We're gonna need you at full power if we want to win this war." Chiyoko stated as she stepped into a long hallway where lights flickered on and off at their own leisure. She took her helmet with built in voice changer that Jack supplied her with and casually fitted it over her head and carried on walking, she then drew her Lancer Assault Rifle and revved the chainsaw bayonet that was built into all the original models.

Chiyoko jogged through the prison block as though Shiro weighed nothing at all. Her blue and purple, metal plated armour made her look more male than female because of the fact that it was almost two sizes too big, added together with her Turian structure-though smaller than most-brought her to just an inch over 6ft. As she kicked open a rusted door that led out of the prison a line of burned and massacred bodies swung towards her on hooks that had been hanging them from the ceiling, Chiyoko squealed-her voice now manlier due to her helmet-and jumped back slightly in shock and began to breathe slower in an attempt to ease her heartbeat back to its normal pace as she carried on through the last building. A small platoon of locust were waiting to ambush her when she got into a more open area but she casually dispatched them one by one with only a few bullets from her lancer. Only once the last locust had fallen she ran through the courtyard while relaying a voice message to the captain of her squad, only to hear a reply that a Raven gunship was inbound and would be at their location in minutes. As the armed helicopter landed a rumble spread through the ground and Chiyoko dashed forward as fast as her legs could carry her. One of her teammates jumped down from the side seat in the back and held out his arms as Chiyoko passed Shiro down to him.

"Help me get him in the Raven." She told him as he nodded his head that was hidden beneath a standard COG helmet. He took hold of Shiro under the arms and placed him in the seat opposite the captain of the squad, he was about to sit back in his own seat but stumbled and tripped as the ground once again began to rumble. The whole gunship tilted slightly as the ground shifted underneath it. Chiyoko had been too busy trying to get her gear and Shiro into the Raven that she was still stood next to it as the ground opened up behind her and a fully grown Corpser emerged from the dirt. The Corpser screeched as loud as it could in such a high pitch that it threw Chiyoko's balance off and made her weary, the Gear with the helmet began trying to pull her into the gunship but because of her half Turian body structure combined with the heavy duty armour she wore, she was heavier than she looked and he struggled to move her more than a few inches. Chiyoko began to regain her balance and gripped the metal railing that ran along the top of the gunship as it rose into the air in an attempt to avoid being destroyed by the Corpser that was about to start screeching again.

"Ugh so annoying," The entire team turned their attention to Shiro who had until now been slumped in his chair in utter silence, he cracked his neck and stood up in the moving gunship so easily that it seemed as though something was holding him in place. His body radiated an illuminous blue glow as he lifted his head which was still covered by his mask, the two who until now had ignored his presence sat back in their chairs and moved themselves slightly further away from him. Shiro leisurely jumped out of the gunship down towards the Corpser that was still screeching at him in an attempt to make him falter. Shiro didn't seem to care at all that it was trying to kill him and began focusing all of his biotic power beneath his feet as he fell. As soon as he made contact with the Corpser's head his biotic power forced a shockwave through its muscles and made it go limp, its screeching seized as it slunk back into the hole it had crawled out of.

Shiro stretched his body out and yawned as though he had not a care in the world and biotically levitated himself back into the gunship, he was quickly reminded this was not the case when Chiyoko shouted his name.

"Shiro…A little help would be nice now that you're awake!" She pouted as he peered out and realised she had been hanging outside the gunship for quite some time. Shiro pulled her nonchalantly into her seat and sat back in his own chair with his head down as Chiyoko began to introduce the two team members that were shaking in their armour.

" The one in the helmet is Carmine and the other is Delta team's Captain, Kim."

Shiro looked at them both but all they could see were the glowing white lights of his mask that portrayed emotionless eyes.

"If there's nothing else you want me for then I'm going back to sleep," Shiro tilted his head towards Chiyoko, "I'll repay you fully for daring to pick me up." He grumbled and she knew he wasn't joking.

Captain Kim began to talk before Shiro had time to close his eyes, "Welcome to Delta Squad Shepard." Shiro turned to face him but gave no reply, after seeing his reaction he started talking again this time with a more mocking tone to his voice. "We are going to meet up with Colonel Hoffman, this should be fun for you." He smirked at Shiro who had been ignoring everything he had said except the name Colonel Hoffman.

Chiyoko giggled "This is gonna be awesome." The only person who wasn't listening was Carmine who had been repeatedly shooting out of the side of the Raven until he turned to talk to Shiro.

"You're Shiro Shepard? The Shiro Shepard?" he questioned in a childish voice.

Shiro answered with a sigh "Yeah"

"Wow that's so cool, I've heard so much about you and about what you did-" He rushed through his sentence but was interrupted by Chiyoko who had now removed her helmet. She glared at him with an irritated look on her face,

"Shouldn't you go back to shooting at nothing." She grumbled.

He retorted with "You're just jealous that you aren't famous."

She glowered at him "What do you want an action figure? Shut up Carmine." The debate ended as the Raven began to slowly lower itself to the ground.

* * *

 **Hey guys just wanted to point out that Tsubasa Shepard is sister to Commander Maiyu Shepard who are both in a story written by kittykittychan999 about the three Mass Effect Games. link here - s/10717092/1/The-Tiny-Commander-and-the-Giant-Turian**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Colonel Hoffman watched in discontent as Shiro climbed down out of the Raven and as soon as his feet hit solid ground Hoffman blocked his way and closed into his personal space.

"A traitor like you doesn't deserve to wear the uniform." He grumbled in his military drill voice. Chiyoko heard this and turned to look at the two of them with a huff as she rolled her eyes, her helmet now back on her head.

"This is my armour, not a COG uniform and it seems to me like you need all the help you can get."

Kim jumped down from the Raven and sauntered towards Hoffman and Shiro while hiding a smirk.

"Step aside!" Hoffman growled to Shiro before ignoring him to talk to Kim, "Lieutenant I've got good news," he stated as they walked away from Shiro and Chiyoko, who were now stood next to each other "We have a plan to end this war once and for all."

"Yeah right." Chiyoko said as she handed Shiro a Lancer and a Black Widow Sniper Rifle. He holstered the sniper on his back after a quick maintenance check but held the lancer one handed with the barrel pointed towards Hoffman's back. Chiyoko took hold of the end of the gun and pointed it to the floor,

"No killing the Colonel." She sounded serious but had a grin plastered on her face.

Samantha Trainer stepped out of a second raven that had been waiting nearby and radioed the colonel through an earpiece, "There are numerous enemy signatures closing in nearby."

Just as she had finished talking a barrage of gunfire rained down upon the whole area. Shiro, Chiyoko and Carmine ducked down behind a set of sandbags that had been piled to create a defendable position, Hoffman and Kim crouched behind another set only a few metres away as Locusts began swarming down some stone steps that led into a large desolate building. Shiro and Chiyoko began to fire their lancers each shot was precise and almost always hit its target. Hoffman continued his conversation that was apparently more important than his life.

"We now have a light mass bomb! It'll take out these bastards with one shot!" he paused for a moment which gave Chiyoko enough time to yell to Carmine and Shiro, "Up high!"

Hoffman continued "But it won't work if we don't have the targeting data, that's why we need the resonator!"

"Watch the sides!" Shiro stated.

"You missed!" Chiyoko giggled at Carmine as she pulled the trigger.

Hoffman pointed to Kim "It'll map their tunnels, so we can hit those sons of bitches where they live!"

Chiyoko ducked down and looked at Shiro "Now I'm pissed!" she grumbled and watched as Shiro stood up and used his biotics to hit a locust with dark channel that slowly sucked away its life force.

"How much can they take?!" Carmine yelled as a mortar exploded close by.

"We've lost contact with Alpha Squad; their last transmission was from Embry Square." Hoffman continued "I want you to get in there, find those men, and deploy the resonator."

Kim looked at Hoffman while collecting his resolve "Will we have air support?"

"What? Are you kidding? You are the support, son!" Hoffman yelled as he pulled his head down to avoid getting hit by a stray bullet. "Nemecysts are keeping our birds out of the area! You'll have to move in on foot!"

Chiyoko heard Hoffman and sighed "We're screwed. Although I'm not sure whether or not I should feel appreciated to be the support, but if we're the support for them, then who's our support?" she pondered what she had said for a moment before continuing to fire.

Hoffman pointed to Trainer who was now hiding in the back of the raven "But the lieutenant here will be feeding you Intel."

"All clear" Shiro said as he stepped out from behind cover.

Trainer radioed to Hoffman, "Yes I will, and the smart thing to do now would be to leave."

Hoffman turned and nodded to Kim "Get it done!" and with that said he walked over to the raven and only turned back to glare once more at Shiro before it rose into the air and was out of sight.

Once Hoffman and the raven were no longer in ear shot Kim turned to Shiro who was now surveying the area with his enhanced Drell vision.

"You heard the Colonel, now get up those stairs!" he yelled at Shiro and then glared at him continuously until he turned away and started walking. Chiyoko followed after him in leaps and bounds up the stairs and giggled as she heard Shiro mumbling.

"Would it be bad if he tripped and fell on his own bayonet?"

Chiyoko laughed twice as much as she heard Kim call after them,

"I heard that soldier!" he grumbled with an enraged look on his face.

"That was the whole point of leaving my radio on. Idiot." Shiro continued up the stairs without even looking back at him and Chiyoko just grinned at Carmine who was trying to avoid getting in the way of Kim's hissy fit.

The four of them continued towards Embry square with Shiro taking the lead and Kim at the back in case they got surrounded. They encountered locusts often in small groups and spent very little time dispatching them. They climbed higher up the building as they scanned the area and came out onto the rooftop. Large metal columns that had once held up skyscrapers were broken and rusted, they had then been replaced by stone columns which had also been partially destroyed. The world was in ruins and no building looked anything like it had in the past. As they were surveying the area another small platoon of locusts ambushed the four with intent to kill. E-holes broke through the ground and more locusts emerged to join the fire fight. Chiyoko and Shiro ducked behind what had once been a small garden encased in stone and used it as a shield from the bullets. Carmine and Kim circled round behind the columns and flanked to the left of the horde.

"Shepard, Vakarian, flank to the right and take em out." Kim ordered into the radio.

Shiro peered over the top of cover to discern the positions of each locust. Shiro then turned to Chiyoko with an idea brewing in his head

"Do you have some grenades by any chance?" he asked after turning off his radio.

"Yeah…why?" Chiyoko replied with a curious look on her face

"I need you to throw them as covering fire." Shiro pointed to a small group of locusts that were huddled closer together than the rest, coincidentally they were to the right of the building. Chiyoko nodded and waited for Shiro to push off with his biotics from behind cover before tossing the grenade straight into the middle of the locusts.

"Special delivery!" She yelled.

Shiro was half way to cover when one of the locusts noticed the grenade and tossed it back towards him instead. In a split second decision Shiro jumped and biotically punched the grenade which sent it flying back at the locusts

"Sorry no return policy." The timer detonated leaving them scattered in pieces on the floor. Chiyoko saw this as an opportunity and vaulted over and out of her defensive position she ran towards the locusts at full speed and biotically charged into them leaving only red mist in her wake. Shiro and Chiyoko then watched silently-after having cleared out all of the locusts from the right of the building-as Carmine and Kim went to great lengths to shoot down the remaining grubs that were scattered along the left side. Kim took the liberty of finishing off an incapacitated locust with a few more bullets than needed and then marched straight up to Shiro and Chiyoko.

"Why did you not take out the grubs on the left when all you were doing was standing there?!" he grumbled at them both.

Chiyoko gave him a slightly pissed off look and then returned to her normal cheery demeanour

"We wouldn't want to overachieve now, would we?" She smirked slightly but made her comment sound so nonchalant that Kim couldn't find the words to retort. He looked at Shiro down his nose but he just ignored him and continued walking through the crumbling ruins into another dilapidated building across the street.

Shiro stopped halfway across a small platform and peered down the old street that was now full of cracks and potholes. Chiyoko immediately came to a standstill as Shiro lifted his arm up as a sign for them to stop, both Carmine and Kim- although reluctant- did the same. They faced the way Shiro was looking and saw the body of another COG soldier lay next to a destroyed and rusted armoured vehicle that was precariously perched on a bottomless pothole.

"Control this is Delta, we have a visual on alpha, possible KIA. No sign of the resonator." Kim radioed back to Trainer with a sigh. The reply that came was simple and short.

"Roger that Delta, keep looking." And with that the radio went silent.

The four continued along the platform in silence and came to a large door that was locked via a keypad that needed a code. Kim tried to barge into Shiro as he walked to the front but hit only the air as Shiro moved slightly to the left just out of his range. Kim grumbled under his breath and then punched in the code that was needed. The large metal doors slid open with a crack as dust sprayed from the hinges. Once they had stepped inside the ground began to rumble and more E-holes opened up in their way. The room was full of broken down pillars and everybody hid behind a separate one as more locusts horded the area. Kim tossed a grenade at one of them but it only got as far as hitting a piece of pillar and landing a few feet short of its target. The locust laughed as the grenade exploded but did no damage.

Shiro looked at Kim and commented in his monotone voice.

"That was the worst throw…ever." And watched as Kim pouted

"It's not my fault somebody put a pillar in my way." He grumbled and then threw another one which actually hit its target this time. Chiyoko giggled and then stood up from behind cover.

"I'll handle this. My biotics are awesome in confined spaces." She biotically charged each locust, without giving them enough time to counterattack. Shiro grabbed hold of Kim and Carmine and held their heads down so they didn't get caught in the cross fire of her biotics and while doing so noticed some COG tags that lay in the corner of the room. Once Chiyoko had finished off the last locust she noticed Shiro pick up the tags and looked at him confused.

"Why are you picking those up?" She asked and watched as he placed them in a pocket in his armour.

"We should always remember the dead." He replied as he stood back up to full height, a set of tags hung around his own neck hidden under his armour next to a band/collar with a name etched onto it. Chiyoko stared at his back for a moment as she caught her breath and then followed after him onto a balcony connected to some stairs that led down onto the street. Kim was now kneeling down next to the dead COG soldier with Carmine searching through the rubble for the resonator.

Chiyoko whispered to Shiro through her helmet and he could immediately hear the concern in her voice.

"I hope that's not Rojas down there. His little boy just turned two last week." When he heard this Shiro tapped her on the helmet and replied in a firm tone

"If it is we'll remember him."

As they got to Kim he turned and spoke

"It could be Alpha."

Shiro knelt down in front of the body and then looked around it.

"The tags are gone."

Kim turned to Carmine who was now fiddling with a piece of equipment he had found.

"Is that the resonator?" he asked in a hopeful tone.

"Nah." Carmine replied as he dropped whatever it was into the pothole he was sat next to.

Chiyoko tapped Shiro on the shoulder and stepped slightly further away as Kim began to talk to control again on the radio.

"Shiro what do you think about this? Don't you think it's kind of…odd?" she asked him her voice as serious as it could possibly be. Her voice changer made her voice sound more like a man than a woman.

"What do I think? It could be Alpha…or it could be the locusts setting a trap or…it could be neither." He added the last suggestion as a more positive possibility. Chiyoko was silent for a moment before speaking again.

"It's the second one isn't it, it's always the second one." She mumbled as her shoulders slumped.

Kim turned as he finished talking to control and immediately started barking out orders.

"Our next target is the House of Sovereigns. Move out!" he stomped past Shiro and watched to make sure his team were actually following him.

A few minutes after starting to walk down the road again a locust on a Troika almost gunned down the four of them with ease. Kim and Carmine were being pinned down too close to the gunning station to get a clear shot and Chiyoko couldn't biotically charge without there being no obstructions in her path. Without hesitation Shiro flared up his biotics around his body and glowing blue teleported himself in front of the Troika. The locust manning the gun became confused and pointed the barrel down towards Shiro in an attempt to subdue him, before the barrel even aimed at its target he had teleported again and was behind the locust.

As the gunfire seized the three who had been avoiding the bullets until now looked towards the Troika to see what had happened. They heard the sound of Shiro's chainsaw bayonet before they saw it and were just in time to watch the rotating blade cut a line through the locust's neck. Its head slowly parted from its body and both parts landed on the floor with a thud. Shiro was nowhere to be seen and only when his teammates looked behind them did they see him casually cleaning locust blood off of his gun and blade.

"Well you guys were useless." He said as he walked past them. Carmine looked at him wide eyed and then ran after him in hysterics.

"That was awesome!" he shouted, his high pitched voice breaking the silence. Chiyoko stepped over to Kim whose jaw was hanging level with his shoulders.

"Hey captain you're catching flies." She giggled and ran over to Shiro who had now stopped and was waiting for them both to catch up.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 Alpha Squad

After two more fire fights with locusts on the way they finally made it to the House of Sovereign. Some grubs had built makeshift barracks outside the entrance and were adamant that they weren't letting anyone pass. Kim and Carmine were gunning down the ones that ran into their line of fire but Shiro and Chiyoko were doing most of the work. Chiyoko was fighting almost solely with her tech and made sure to use her bullets wisely whereas Shiro stayed back and was casually picking them off one by one with headshots from his Black Widow. After all the Locusts had been eliminated they huddled up in front of the courtyard and knelt down behind cover to regroup.

Kim looked at Carmine who was fiddling with his Lancer.

"Are you good?" he asked him.

"Yeah but there's something wrong with this thing, I don't know it keeps jamming. Can you take a look at this…" as he spoke he stood up slightly in an attempt to give Kim the Lancer and before they knew it he had a hole through his head and was lying motionless on the floor. Shiro was the first to react and grabbed hold of Chiyoko and Kim, pulling them into cover.

"Sniper." He said but was interrupted by Kim who said the exact same thing. Another horde of locusts crawled up through the floor, their bullets penetrating the previously calm air. Shiro only needed a second to think and then spoke.

"Chi use your incineration on the ones in front." Chiyoko nodded, "I'll take out the snipers. Tell me once you finish hitting each one. Kim…no grenades…please…sir." He added and then ignoring Kim's reaction began to fire his Widow at the snipers that had killed Carmine. Chiyoko threw orange tech fire at each of the locusts and although it didn't kill them it left a lasting effect that continued to burn them.

"Shiro I'm done." She informed him as she ducked back into cover. As the last enemy sniper fell Shiro turned to look at the locust that had been hit with incineration and then flared up his biotics. He began throwing numerous biotic warps at each of them, creating fiery explosions that were contained within a biotic wall he had created to stop his allies from getting caught in the fire.

"Nice job." He praised Chiyoko but still his voice held no emotion. She just looked down at Carmine and then watched as Shiro knelt down to pick up his COG tags.

"I can't believe it. Carmine…damn." She stuttered slightly and then watched as Kim snatched his tags from Shiro and waltzed up the steps towards another giant metal door. He opened it using a different code to the previous one.

The sound of gunshots came from further within and echoed through the hallways. Shiro heard a voice within the echo and listened closer. It was a woman.

"GIVE ME FUCKING SPACE!"

He looked at the others who were wearing extremely confused expressions.

"Well I think we just found Alpha squad." He commented and then began to run down the hallway with Chiyoko and Kim following at full speed. They stood on the edge of a balcony and looked down to find a female Quarian in red and black armour and a red helmet, fighting off a whole squad of locusts with her back against the wall.

"It's a Quarian?" Chiyoko said slightly astounded at what she was seeing.

The Quarian started shouting again while firing her shotgun at the approaching locusts.

"I said give me space! What do you not understand about claustrophobia?!"

Chiyoko and Kim looked at each other baffled.

"Correction it's a claustrophobic Quarian." Shiro added, even he seemed to be confused at this development. The three watched as the Quarian took down one locust after another leaving shotgun shells to fall to the floor as she deployed her attack drone to keep the rest busy. While she was reloading a locust managed to sneak in a lucky bullet that pierced through her Quarian body armour and into her leg. Kim and Chiyoko saw her predicament and began to run down a set of stairs that led to the ground, Shiro on the other hand didn't move an inch.

"Ugh…son of a-!" she grumbled as her leg gave way due to the pain. While she was stunned and struggling to pull herself to her feet two more locusts pulled the pins on their grenades and tossed them towards her. They knew her shotgun would be lethal to them if they got too close even in her weakened state, so they were being cautious

"We're not going to get there in time!" Chiyoko shouted back to Shiro but noticed that he was no longer in the place he had been before, "Again with the disappearing act." Chiyoko stopped running and slowed her pace to a walk. Kim noticed her slow down and stopped to question her.

"Why did you stop? She needs our help?!" he shouted but Chiyoko just walked past him.

"Shiro's got it covered." She giggled.

"Crap." The Quarian grimaced as she saw the grenades land next to her. She tried to stand but couldn't muster the strength and only opened the wound on her leg further, making it twice as painful. She closed her eyes and relinquished herself to the grave when she heard the click of the grenades as they exploded. All went white and a ringing in her ears knocked her off balance and made her feel as if she were floating. The sound of gunshots caused her to open her eyes once again, only then did she realise that she wasn't floating but being carried by Shiro who was currently holding back the fire from the explosion and protecting his two teammates from bullets with biotics. He was ignoring the, now safe, Quarian in his arms and was focusing on making sure nothing got in Chiyoko and Kim's way as they charged into the battle. The two dispatched the locust squad easily with their lancers and then checked each of the bodies to ensure there were no life signs. The Quarian stared at the strange man in a metal mask -Shiro- who had just randomly appeared and was now holding her 'captive' in his arms. She pushed against his chest with her right hand and tried to make him drop her but her attempts failed and his grip didn't loosen any. It was as though he didn't even notice her and this agitated her even more, so she tried twice as hard to get away but to no avail. Seeing as she was getting nowhere she clenched her three fingers into a fist and watched as her glowing orange omni-blade digitalized around her hand and up her arm. She placed the tip of the blade to Shiro's throat and added just enough pressure as to not break through his skin. Until now he had been too concerned with the others to even notice her squirming but as soon as he felt the tech blade touch his skin, he turned his full attention to her.

"Put me down now." She grumbled in as strong a voice as she could muster while placing the blade even closer to his skin. Shiro glanced down at her bleeding leg and then looked straight at her.

"You are injured." He stated without so much as flinching. He studied her helmet and watched as her seemingly glowing eyes narrowed.

"I'm fine…now let me go!" she yelled at him this time and then dispersed her blade when she realised he was being slightly more cooperative than before.

'This Quarian is interesting' Shiro thought to himself and then proceeded by dropping her from his arms immediately.

"Ow you didn't need to drop me." She yelped and flailed her fists at him as she hit the floor. Shiro crouched down just out of her reach and commented.

"You said to 'let you go'." He then watched in amusement as she pouted slightly. "Anyway you're fine right so you should be able to stand up easily from this light fall." He taunted even though he knew she was actually in quite a bit of pain. Chiyoko and Kim were watching this odd display from a few metres away. Chiyoko smiled beneath her helmet at the change in Shiro's attitude.

"It was a figure of speech." She mumbled while still pouting and then tried to pull herself to her feet. She then cringed as a pain shot through her wound and up her leg and more blood than before seethed through her armour. She sat back down as the pain increased. "I…I can't get up." She admitted as she turned her head away from him embarrassed. Shiro let out a sigh through his helmet.

"Do you have anything to stop the bleeding with?" Shiro asked when he saw that she had a small medics pouch attached to a belt on her armour.

"Yeah hold on." She pulled some bandages out from the pouch and some medi-gel to ease the pain and speed up the healing process, then gave them to Shiro. "Here." He took them and then as gently as he could applied the medi-gel to her wound, after he had used enough he wrapped the bandages around her leg and tied them off to stop her from bleeding out any further.

"What's your name?" He asked as he checked to make sure she had no other wounds, "Also will you be okay with a suit puncture? Can't that be lethal to Quarians?" she giggled slightly at the seriousness in his tone.

"I was born on my home planet therefore I have never needed this suit to live." She giggled a little more. "It's just our tradition now." As she spoke she removed her helmet to reveal her innocent yet feminine features pale purple skin, faintly glowing light blue eyes and wavy jet black hair that reached her shoulders. "My name is Zaari Reeger Nar Rannoch and I'm with Alpha Squad."

Shiro thought for a moment before replying.

"I'm Shiro, we're Delta Squad." He pointed to Chiyoko and Kim who then waltzed over to introduce themselves.

"Is it a human thing to only give either your first or last name, never the whole thing?" Zaari asked genuinely curious.

"Vakarian." Chiyoko stated, her voice changer still implemented.

"Oh my God, he did it as well and he's not even human!" Zaari yelled now getting slightly annoyed.

Chiyoko shuffled over to Shiro.

"Did she just call me a 'he'?" she whispered but didn't actually expect to get an answer to her rhetorical question. Shiro didn't even get time to answer as Kim once again wanted him out of the way and needed information.

"Shepard! Scout the perimeter, be back here in ten." Kim ordered in his military tone. He glared at Shiro when he didn't get to it immediately and then watched as he did as he was told, proud of being able to boss around the infamous Shiro Shepard. Chiyoko furrowed her brows beneath her helmet as she watched Shiro place his lancer down next to Zaari. Kim watched him do so in confusion.

"Shepard what are you doing?" He pondered.

Shiro tilted his head back over his shoulder and spoke in a mysterious voice.

"If all I'm going to do is scout the area, then unlike you I obviously don't need my gun." He was about to walk off and then added on the end "Sir." With that he disappeared.

Zaari looked at the lancer that was now propped up next to her on the floor and then at spot Shiro had disappeared from. With a slight huff she looked at Kim who was now radioing control to tell them of her appearance and then at Chiyoko who was now sat down on a broken water feature next to her.

"So…" she turned to Chiyoko and was about to speak but was interrupted.

"No. No." Chiyoko shook her head. Zaari looked at her baffled.

"What?" she asked curious of what she meant by 'no'.

"When girls start a sentence with so…it often continues with a pick up line or a flirty comment, that is the wrong road to go down with me." Chiyoko placed her arms in the shape of an x. Zaari's face showed the expression of someone who had just had an epiphany.

"So you bat for the other team. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Hehehe." She giggled at the thoughts that filled her head. Chiyoko began to freak out about the extremely wrong ideas this Quarian was getting.

"No that's not…" she was cut short as Shiro intervened.

"Chiyoko Vakarian is a girl." He stated from behind Zaari making her almost jump out of her suit. Zaari began to turn bright red as she became more and more embarrassed in the passing seconds. Chiyoko shook her head at Shiro and pouted.

"You had to tell her my first name didn't you. Vakarian on its own sounds so awesome though." Shiro tapped her on the shoulder and retorted.

"I could have told her the other thing…" before he could finish Chiyoko swung for him and just missed his head as he ducked.

"What other thing? What is Vakarian hiding Shepard?" Kim interrupted their sibling like quarrel. Shiro and Chiyoko grew serious when they heard his questions. Chiyoko replied first.

"Nothing, Sir." She added the last part sarcastically.

"None of your business Sir." Shiro glared at Kim and also added Sir on with sarcasm. Kim looked at them both as a vein on his forehead slightly convulsed.

"Why do you keep saying Sir like that?" he asked in genuine annoyance. Both of them answered him at the exact same time and this time Chiyoko copied Shiro's monotone voice.

"No reason, Sir." Kim glared at them both and then in a bout of rage drew up close to Shiro in an attempt to hit him. Shiro blocked Kim's incoming fist easily with his hand and stood holding it in the air until Kim realised how outmatched he actually was and decided to back off, his pride now hanging around his ankles. Zaari watched the whole scene and looked at Shiro's back as he slumped down to pick up his lancer from where he had left it. He turned his head to look at her and then checked the bandages that he had wrapped around her leg.

"Can you still not walk?" he asked her as she met the lights of his mask. She once again tried to stand and then grimaced.

"Nope." She replied followed by her trying to cover the amount of pain she was feeling. Shiro studied her expression and could tell there was no way she would be able to continue on foot until the medi-gel took full effect and fixed her leg. He knelt down in front of her with one knee raised and one on the ground, he placed his arms backwards without looking in her direction.

"Get on." He then became slightly impatient as Zaari stuttered about how she wasn't going to let him carry her and it would be wrong to impose so he turned to her and spoke again, this time with more seriousness.

"I'm not leaving anyone behind again." Zaari sensed a change in his attitude and without saying anything pulled herself up onto his back. He gripped the armour on her legs and stood back up to full height with her now on his back. Chiyoko took hold of his lancer and then passed it to Zaari.

"I think you'd best hang onto this." She giggled followed by, "You two look so cute."

Zaari punched the back of her helmet when she heard the comment and then watched as Chiyoko gripped her head. Shiro watched her stumble slightly and shook his head while rolling eyes hidden behind his mask.

"Helmet…ringing…whoa I just saw a whole new world, well at least we know she can pack a punch now." She laughed as all three of them waited for Kim to give them new orders.

"Seeders are jamming transmissions. I'm having trouble getting through to control." He grumbled

"I also tried to radio for a raven evac but never got through." Zaari commented.

"Then we should make taking out those seeders our top priority…Sir." Shiro spoke with absolute certainty and it made it impossible for Kim to refuse his idea. He grumbled and looked displeased but knew Shiro was right so he had nothing left to do than agree with him.

"Agreed, we need to establish communications with control ASAP." After he had finished speaking Kim moved in front of his team and set of at a jogging pace through the halls of the ever crumbling building. Chiyoko jogged next to Shiro who was jogging while bearing the weight of Zaari on his back.

"Why do you have a voice changer?" Zaari questioned Chiyoko to pass the time and embarrassment she was feeling from relying so much on a man she had just met. Chiyoko pondered the question for a few seconds before answering.

"Well I used to help my dad catch Mercenaries in his spare time and it annoyed me when they underestimated my abilities so he gave me this." She tapped her helmet. "It was useful at the time and it just kinda stuck as a habit."

"Plus she has self-esteem issues." Shiro added into the conversation but didn't manage to say anything further as Chiyoko elbowed him in the ribs.

Chapter 3

The building shook as they ran through the hallways which, due to the weight of Zaari on his back, knocked Shiro slightly off balance. He slammed his hand against the wall and leant his weight on it to stop himself from causing more injury to Zaari. Once the rumbling had stopped and the building was once again still and quiet he resumed his pace. Chiyoko had been walking alongside them the whole time and was watching for any signs of the enemy, she saw none. Kim halted them in front of a large metal door. He entered a code into the keypad but nothing happened. Kim turned around slightly enraged and then barked out orders.

"Jack! Uncloak and rip this door."

The small robot appeared a few feet away and then manoeuvred around the now stationary Delta team to get to the door. He began burning through the locks but it was taking longer than expected. Chiyoko pouted as she looked at the robot.

"I could have done that." She grumbled and then looked away.

Zaari giggled slightly at Chiyoko's anger towards the robot taking her job. Both girls fell silent as an intensely loud screeching came from a hallway to their left. Chiyoko clamped her hands over her helmet in an attempt to dim out the sound if only a little. Kim did the same. Shiro's balance fell to nothing as his ears took the full force of the noise. All of his strength was now being put towards not dropping Zaari and staying on his feet. Zaari's Quarian mask had automatically dimmed the noise when it had started, this was a built in mechanism that helped keep the old Quarians healthy. (plus it was useful when ignoring people)

Zaari saw the amount of damage it would cause if his ears weren't shielded even a little and took hold of the sides of his head. Although he had his hood up she was hoping she had found his ears. The screeching seized moments later and the team looked toward the source. It was a wretch, they soon found out there was more than just one. They came from out of the woodwork and swarmed the inside of the building. Chiyoko began taking shots at them as they crawled along the ceiling towards them. Those that got hit by her bullets fell to the floor as lifeless corpses. Kim was still off balance and was stumbling around near the right side of the hallway, he hadn't yet realised that he was dangerously close to a locust hole in the floor that was endlessly deep. Zaari removed her hands from Shiro's ears and gripped his shoulders once again. He seemed to be clenching his teeth as the pain his, increased hybrid, hearing was causing him began to simmer down slightly. He turned his head towards Zaari and then nodded to show he appreciated her previous actions, she nodded back but looked up shocked when she glimpsed the sight of Kim slipping and falling backwards down an e-hole. Shiro saw what she was looking at and although still in pain used his biotic teleporting ability to land next to the hole and grab the flailing Kim before he fell too far. Shiro landed on his stomach and had managed to take hold of Kim's arms, Zaari was now lay sprawled on top of him and was trying to pull Kim up and over his head.

Kim clambered out of the e-hole using Shiro and Zaari's bodies as an escape ladder. Shiro bore Kim's weight with a grunt as he climbed higher and then flinched in shock as he felt a hand grab his backside. He glowed blue in frustration.

"Remove your hands." He grumbled in such a deep tone that it was scary. Kim did so only to hear the click of a gun reloading. He looked at Zaari who was now holding a shotgun towards the spot between his eyes.

"That isn't any better." She growled as he realised he had now placed his hands on her bum instead. Chiyoko who was currently engaged in an argument with a wretch who had decided to screech in her face biotically punched it and sent it flying over all three of them and into the hole. She saw the situation the three had gotten themselves into and decided to intervene. She took hold of Kim and dragged him onto his feet, then looked at him for a moment and commented.

"Pervert." She then turned to the other two as Kim became depressed while leaning his head against a wall. Chiyoko picked up Zaari from off of Shiro and waited for him to get up before placing her on his back once more.

"Don't ever touch me again." Shiro growled at Kim with ferocity in his voice. Zaari glared at him from on Shiro's back and then watched as the door swung open due to Jack completing his task. Shiro stepped through first and then perked his head up slightly when he saw some oddly shaped objects strewn across the floor. He narrowed his eyes when he realised what they were, he knelt down to get a better look and watched as Zaari reached past his head to retrieve one of them.

"What is it?" she asked in confusion as she turned it around in her hands. "It doesn't have any of the necessary properties of a weapon."

She held it in front of Shiro so he could get a better look. He only looked at it for a second before replying.

"It's a transmitter for the Hammer of Dawn." He sighed slightly as he remembered the amount of destruction such a thing could cause in the wrong hands and how they had just been left here for anyone to retrieve. "Only when outside and if the satellite is online it can be used. You just need to aim and hold the trigger. Preferably make sure there are no friendlies within a ten meter radius of the strike zone."

He spoke as if he was reading directly from a manual and Zaari just nodded her head as she stored the data in her helmet.

"Keep hold of that we might need it." He instructed and then watched as Chiyoko picked up another that was lay slightly further away. Shiro ducked down under a windowsill that looked out onto an open pathway as two locusts ran past in a hurry. Zaari squeezed closer into his back to stop them from noticing her and in doing so shocked him slightly. Zaari felt him flinch and waited until Chiyoko had dispatched the locusts with a grenade before questioning him about it.

"Why did you jump so much a minute ago?" she asked looking quite shot down. Chiyoko heard what she had asked and sighed slightly before answering her question for him.

"He's got serious personal space issues. Usually he wouldn't allow anyone near him unless under dire circumstances." Chiyoko giggled as she spoke and then looked at Shiro's glowing mask. "You're glaring at me right now aren't you?"

Shiro didn't even answer as she already knew what he would say. Kim opened a door onto the open terrace and was about to walk outside but became enraged as Shiro took hold of the back of his armour.

"What do you think you're doing?" He growled in anger.

"Enemies." Shiro gave him a short one word answer and the pointed to an e-hole at the other side of the pathway that was hidden by a large amount of broken stone. He then pointed towards a large creature that was excreting more smaller, flying versions of itself. "Target… Seeder."

Kim grumbled to himself but took a few steps back towards Chiyoko, Shiro and Zaari. Chiyoko looked at Shiro who slowly knelt down and placed Zaari on an old stone bench.

"What are you thinking?" She questioned him and watched as he peered out of the doorway while leaning his back against it.

"Hey I'm the captain here. You take orders from me, not Shepard." Kim glared at Chiyoko as he spoke but fell quiet when she retorted.

"Hmmm, well would you like to share your plan then Sir?" she asked in an annoyed tone. When he screwed up his face, she happily knew she had won the argument. "Shiro is the only person I know who can come up with over a hundred possible strategies in less than a minute. I'd love to see you do that." She smirked.

Zaari glanced over to where Shiro had for the past minute or so been ignoring the other two who were bickering. She caught herself wondering just what he looked like underneath his mask and hood. She looked away when he moved from against the doorway. Shiro stood in the middle of Kim and Chiyoko and stared at Kim from behind his mask.

"If you have no suggestions, may I give my opinion on our situation?" He asked in a rather polite tone. Kim took a step away from him and then nodded as his face twisted into a scowl.

"Chi and Zaari have acquired two transmitters for the Hammer of Dawn. If we are lucky the satellite may still be online and we can use them to take out the Seeder. As for the locusts we will need to get rid of them first, that job will be left to us, I will need you to distract them long enough for me to make a hole in their cover and in doing so make a route to the other side. Those Nemecysts the Seeder is making will become a serious problem if we don't do something about it soon so I would like to have Zaari keep an eye on the air while we fight, that is only if she has regained even the slightest ability to stand yet." Shiro finished talking and then looked at Zaari who had been listening to the plan.

All of Delta squad watched as she slowly hoisted herself to her feet. She lost her balance as she tried to stand up too quick and was about to fall down when Shiro appeared behind her. He took hold of her arms as she leant against him for support and then put a bit more pressure on her leg. She winced but held firm. He let go of her when he saw her resolve and then bent down to check the wound on her leg. He saw that it had begun to bleed again and narrowed his eyes (though nobody could tell he was doing so).

"If my calculations are correct then it should only take us a few minutes to finish the fight. Only put as much weight on your leg as you feel possible. Afterwards I will lend you my back again." He glanced at her as she nodded, then stood back to full height and turned to Kim, "Is this plan good enough for you? If so we should execute it swiftly whilst Zaari can still stand."

Kim nodded and ran out of the door first to get the locusts attention. Chiyoko followed him and ducked behind the wall closest to the Seeder. Shiro took hold of Zaari around the waist and teleported her to a safe spot on the building's roof above them. He then returned to the fight and put his strategy in motion. A large laser struck the Seeder where Chiyoko had locked onto it and proved just how menacingly powerful the Hammer of Dawn really was.

Everything worked perfectly and only a minute or so had passed by the time they had destroyed the Seeder, Nemecysts and Locust platoon, Shiro teleported up to the roof as he saw Zaari's leg give way and got there just in time to catch her with his back.

"Thank you for the hard work." He murmured as he teleported back down to the floor. She smiled softly when she heard him say this and thought to herself. 'Maybe this guy isn't as bad as Kim's making him seem…but I bet Prias won't like him…'

As they carried on through more buildings they easily found and dispatched another Seeder with the Hammer of Dawn.

"Man I'm glad we have this thing!" Chiyoko giggled as she hugged her new toy.

"Hmph, you lucked out. It's just a good thing the satellite is still online otherwise you wouldn't have been able to use it." Kim harrumphed his way towards another hallway.

Shiro rolled his eyes at both of them.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The squad progressed quickly through the next few rooms. Kim leading the way as they stepped into a large room that doubled as a tunnel a large chandelier hung over the entrance and began to swing slowly back and forth as they entered. One of the noticeable features were the pews that made this room look like a large human chapel, which in these times was an extremely rare thing to see. Zaari watched Shiro closely as he seemed to be slightly agitated, she then switched her gaze to Chiyoko who also seemed more focused now than she was before.

Chiyoko squirmed. "I really don't like places like these. They make me feel so awkward. Being abominations and all…"

Shiro only commented with "Can you also smell blood or is that just me?"

Zaari reacted the only way she knew how, with a sarcastic "Whoops, my bad. Sorry for bleeding."

Kim tried his best to radio command once again.

"Command? Come in Command." There was a brief silence before a glitch reply came through on their headsets.

"We read you Delta but your signal is extremely weak." Trainer was finally able to get through on the comm. Kim sighed in relief for a moment and then replied.

"We are on route to Alpha squads position and should be arriving there shortly." Kim stopped for a moment as another transmission from the Raven gunship cut him off.

"Delta have you found Alpha is the DC clear? Fuel is running low we must pick you up soon, are we clear to land?" Kim shouted in shock,

"No DC is not clear! I repeat DC is not clear! Abort that plan of action." Afterwards the comms went silent and all they could do was hope they had heard their warning.

They continued through a small arch that lay behind a large book stand that had once held religious tomes. As soon as they got to other side Shiro looked down to where a Gears body now lay. The body had been dismembered and mutilated to no end and it was almost impossible to determine who it was. Thankfully the COG tags lying slightly to the side gave them a name. Shiro took hold of them as he carefully knelt down and handed them to Zaari who was shaking slightly on his back.

"So that's where that smell came from. I believe you should keep hold of these." He said. Zaari turned the tags around in her hands and replied.

"Shit…its Rojas. Those bastards." She shook even more now, although Chiyoko couldn't tell whether that was from anger or grief. Chiyoko looked at Shiro's back for a moment before walking alongside him.

"Maybe I didn't do you any favours, getting you out of prison." She sounded unsure of herself and he just tapped her on the head as he stepped forward.

They climbed another set of stairs and had to eliminate a few locusts that were guarding the last seeder but it all went rather smoothly. As soon as the last one was out of the way their comm systems came back online almost immediately and this time the signal was as clear as it ever could be. Delta squad were about to continue moving when a new voice blared out over the radio.

"This is Alpha squad where the fuck are you guys?!" Shiro tilted his head as the unknown voice was rather loud. Zaari on the other hand replied to it immediately.

"Kilah. Prias, Is that you? where have you been?" she grinned at his reply.

"That's what I've been wanting to ask medic." As soon as he had finished speaking all of Delta squad turned to look at Zaari. She looked a little awkward and then added.

"What can't a medic be on the frontlines too?" Shiro answered her question before anyone else could.

"Yes. But the medic isn't going to be a very helpful one if they always get themselves shot. If the medic goes down who's going to be able to heal them?"

Kim cut them off in the middle of their lecture. "Alpha we are in the house of Sovereign."

They all listened through their radios as an even more annoyed and hectic reply came from Prias. "Great. We're pinned down by troikas on YOUR rooftop over!"

Kim straightforwardly answered and all of his team including Zaari looked at him with an 'are you an idiot' face. "We'll take em out. Sit tight."

Prias grumbled out a matter of fact reply. "We're not going anywhere Sir."

Delta set off at a run and carefully dispatched the next few groups of locust. Shiro managed to maintain biotic barriers that protected them from any lucky bullets that they couldn't dodge and with Chiyoko and Zaari using tech their enemies never really stood a chance. Kim began to speak down his radio once again as they ran along an open balcony.

"We have eyes on your location now Alpha."

A reply soon came followed by a bombardment of gunshots "Great I'd like your ammo on our location right now."

Chiyoko turned and looked at Shiro "This guy sounds like more of an ass than you." Shiro didn't take long to reply.

"I'm just straightforwardly honest it's up to others how they take what I do and say. But this guy just seems to piss people off on purpose." Zaari giggled and then gave Chiyoko a confused look when she heard her say.

"Don't be a Krogan. Don't be a Krogan."

They continued running for a short while. Small groups of locust soldiers got in their way but none were left by the time they had gone through. They arrived at a large circular room that looked a lot like an old Roman coliseum, there were rows of seats set high above the floor that were out of reach from where they stood and in the middle of the floor a large round table sat looking out of place. Zaari peered around the room rather curious about the odd structure.

"Wow there is a lot of history here." She mumbled without thinking. Shiro heard her and added his own part on aswell.

"Yeah…a lot of lies too." Kim overheard him and grumbled rather blatantly

"You've got some nerve soldier. I've heard all about your trial." Just as the last word came out of his mouth a loud bang and cracking sound cut through the air from where Chiyoko was now stood, her clenched fist embedded in the wall she had just punched.

"His trial was a sham!..Sir." her helmet masked her facial expression but in that situation anyone could tell she was a little more than just slightly enraged, the real question was who she was actually angry at. Kim or herself. Shiro walked over to her and put his hand on her shoulder.

"It's fine. Stay calm." He then let go. Chiyoko peered at him through her helmet and then removed her hand from the now cracked and dented wall with a sigh. Zaari looked amazed as she asked her how she didn't manage to break her hand when she did that. Chiyoko only grinned and replied with 'Turians have a denser bone structure'. Zaari stared at the back of Shiro's head as she remembered something that Prias had once told her about a certain soldier doing something that ended with him being demoted, stripped of all honour and sent to the most high security cryo prison they could think of on Sera.

They got to an advantageous position above the main street. They were now on the opposite side across from were Alpha was positioned. Two troikas were placed to gun down any COG that dared to face them, at the time the locust obviously didn't expect they would be the ones these two were used on. Chiyoko and Kim took their time using the troikas to clear any locusts from the street below and any nemacyts that came at them from above. Once they had finished they stepped onto the street and watched as Alpha squad did the same from the other building.

Zaari called out to a male Turian who was leading the group in a cheery voice "Prias. Kilah it is good to see you."

Chiyoko peered at him from behind Shiro with hesitation and then huffed. "Oh so it's not a Krogan…that's kind of a let-down. Plus why'd it have to be that guy to boot?"

Shiro looked back at Zaari.

"Can you walk okay if I put you down?" she checked her wound and then with a satisfied look replied

"Thanks to you taking the weight off of it I think it's fine. I should be able to walk now. Thank you…for carrying me." She looked embarrassed as Shiro gently lowered her legs down onto the floor. As soon as she had her balance back she hobbled over to Prius.

"Are you injured? Where's Rojas?" he asked her and then watched as she shook her head and held out his tags. He looked down and the looked passed her as he caught a glimpse of Shiro's mask. His eyes narrowed slightly and then he went back to focusing on Zaari.

Chiyoko glanced around and then turned her attention to Shiro who seemed to be looking for something.

"What's up?" she asked cautiously. He couldn't answer her specifically but shook his head as he continued to look from building to building and then down each end of the street.

"Something feels off." Was all he could say before the sound of the incoming Raven cut through the air, he watched intently as it flew through the narrow building and then noticed what it was that had made him feel tense. An array of locusts were to surrounding the street and were now climbing through the building into position, Shiro turned his attention to an even bigger threat that came in the form of a nemascyst that was now hurling towards the wide open gunship.

"Shit! Everybody down!" he yelled as loudly as possible and even Chiyoko was shocked at the amount of urgency his voice had portrayed. Every squad member scattered as far away from the middle of the street as possible and ducked behind any type of cover they could find. The Raven had no time to dodge the incoming enemy and was instantly set ablaze and took with it half of a building that stood in its crash path. The building and Raven then showered down onto the street and almost crushing Alpha and Delta. If it had ended with just that it would have been a blessing, then the locust decided it was time to strike with everything they had. They charged into the street from either side and continuously aimed bullets towards the Gears with no remorse. Kim had been separated from the rest and was on the opposite side of the now downed and burning gunship using his lancer to keep them at bay. One of Alpha squad's team members took a bullet to his chest that pierced his armour and fell to the floor lifeless. Prias swore at the locusts and was returning fire. Zaari was also doing the same. Chiyoko was shooting shorts bursts from her lancer and then ducked down next to Shiro panting.

"Isn't there any way to get out of this?" she asked him.

"Our way out is back where Alpha came from but how to get Kim over here is-" His line of thought was cut off abruptly at the arrival of a large locust general donned in black robes. The two of them could do naught but watch as it stepped up behind Kim and with ease, impaled him on a large barbed black sword. Shiro was about to teleport over to him when Chiyoko took hold of his shoulder and began pulling him back.

"Shiro we have to go." She yelled and then ran after the fleeing Alpha squad who were waiting for them to catch up before barring the doors of the building they had emerged from earlier. Shiro followed and protected them with biotics as they fled.

* * *

 **So yeah...I've been having issues with writers block. I have so many ideas in my head for all the different stories I have on my laptop...but whenever I try to write them down, I blank. So I'm hoping that will have magically dissipated the next time I write a bit more of this story but who knows. Sorry if the next chapter takes awhile I uploaded all four of these at once so don't hate meh. ^.^"**

 **Thanks for reading and drop me a review.**


End file.
